Individuals in are dying by the masses in Africa due to HIV. Close to 12 million children in Sub Saharan Africa are being orphaned each year due to AIDS. (UNAIDS and WHO Aids Epidemic Update, Geneva, 2007) To successfully combat AIDS in Africa, we must understand the cycle of the epidemic, and the many layers of problems AIDS causes for Africa. Once we understand this cycle and the depth of the problem, it becomes evident that the children and people of Africa desperately need continued support and funding from the US. The area south of the Sahara desert, known as Sub-Saharan Africa, is the worst-affected area in the world by AIDS.
An estimated 1. 7 million adults and children became infected with HIV during 2007. (Population and Reference bureau and UNAIDS) The chart below illustrates the devastation that AIDS has caused. People living w/ HIV AIDS: 22,500,000 Children with HIV/AIDS: 2,200,000 Adult HIV prevalence (%): 5% New HIV infections: 1. 700,000 AIDS deaths: 1,600,000 The cycle of AIDS in Africa is not limited to drug users, promiscuity and unsafe sex. Blanche Pitt, director of the South Africa office of the African Medical and Research Foundation, states it best, ”It is poverty.
[It is] desperation. ” (New York Times, April 23, 2008). Combined with mass poverty, lack of resources, education, and the cycle circulates amongst the Sub Saharan region and its people. The voices of those affected by the cycle, real orphans, fathers, and mothers, who struggle to live the cycle, are reminders to help us realize the difficulties in their lives. Kevina Lubowa; a 14 year old- orphan in Uganda states,” They don’t have blankets; they don’t eat meat; they don’t have sugar; they sleep in huts. Some go to eat at the neighbors, or they get one meal a day.
At school, life is good. The teacher calls us orphans, but I don’t like that name. Even other children don’t want that name. We think we are animals. ” (Alliance of Municipal Leaders in Africa) The level of discrimination is an enormous hurdle in the prevention against HIV and AIDS. Fear and prejudice creates loneliness, embarrassment, and confusion for the children who have lost their parents to AIDS. Due to an underlining fear of being an outcast, and judgment from others in the community, victims often do not get tested, or seek treatment for the disease.
Medicines and antiviral drugs are not available to all those in need, not only because of funding and accessibility, but by denial. Many African countries have made notable steps forward in their treatment programs, and making medicine available. However, not all areas in need of the anti-viral drugs have been reached. (avert. org) Continued AIDS education is needed to combat the ignorance, prejudice and the fear that causes people to discriminate. Also, the issues that surround the epidemic are not limited to only health issues. Emotional trauma, separation anxiety, isolation and discrimination are common pressures as well.
The strain on the family is prevalent and devastating, creating a domino effect on family members who are now responsible to take care of those who are left behind. Children standing on the grave of their parents. Lucy, a grandmother who watched her sons’ die of AIDS, misses out on the chance to enjoy being a grandmother. She now has to be the mother of her grandchildren” My sons left behind 6 orphans, and now I’m once again a mother to children ranging in age from 8 to 15. Two of my grandchildren were also HIV infected. One has already died and one is still living at age 8, though she has started falling sick.
I’m taking care of them alone because in our culture, it is the family of the father who must care for orphans. This is a great challenge having to look after young children again after counting myself among those who had graduated from the responsibility of being a mother. ” (UNDP, Issues paper, 27, online) Another mother, Gerrida, featured in the book, There is no me without you, who lost her own daughter to the disease, opened her home to several orphaned children who lost their parents. These heroic women affirmed a story of a man, Eskender, who trained as a metalworker, lost both of his parents.
When Eskender was diagnosed with AIDS and became sick, he lost his job and house. He and his young wife Emebate, also an orphan, made a life on a square of area of a sidewalk. In poor countries like Jamaica, and Haiti, making a life on a sidewalk is referred to by “squatting”. Essentially, this is what this family did. The family “popped-a-squat” alongside the sidewalk, and claimed the area as their home. When it rained, they pulled plastic over themselves and their baby for protection. Stories like Gerrida’s and Lucy’s are real. The number of orphans left behind is just the beginning.
Unprotected, defenseless children, living with an HIV-infected parent also suffer while the parent is available to care for them. The children are exposed to a high degree of stress, uncertainty and sudden abandonment. While being driven through Ethiopia, Mellissa Faye Green, author of book There is no me without You, writes “Nearly two thirds of school-age children are not in school in Ethiopia, nearly the worst record in the world, and only 41 percent of adults can read. Boys and girls in V-necked maroon or sky-blue school sweaters (no matter how ragged) are the envy of dustier, unschooled children.
” (There is no me without you, Mellissa Fay Green, page 9) Looks can be deceiving. The uniformed children (pictured above) full of optimism hope that their uniforms and notebooks will add up to something. “They will feel happy until one-half year or one year after high school graduation, [and] then they will begin to realize something is wrong. ” (There is no me without you, page 9) Some don’t realize the circumstances of being poor until after high school when they are on their own, struggling to provide amidst the destruction of AIDS.
Fortunately, the uncertainty about getting an education is foreign to most children in the United States. For children in Africa, families often cannot afford school supplies or other fees required to attend school. There are children also that end up wandering outside the security of the family, and end street children. This makes up a good percentage of Sub Saharan’s future leadership. The result is a generation of young people, with little to no education, and guidance. (The Aids Orphan, Contemporary Review) There is hope. Relief efforts from the government of the United States are prevalent.
The United States has committed to step up the total support and assistance for Africa to $8. 7 billion by 2010, which will double the level of assistance that was given in 2004. (whitehouse. gov) First lady, Mrs. Bush has demonstrated her ability to sustain relations and humanitarian efforts in Africa. Currently, Mrs. Bush traveled on three occasions to Africa, visiting South Africa, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, Mozambique, Zambia, and Mali. On all three trips, Mrs.
Bush painted a partnership between the U. S.and Africa to strengthen education, empower women, and fight against AIDS. In 2003 President Bush stated; “The United States of America will take the side of individuals and groups and governments fighting HIV/AIDS in Africa and other parts of the world. We’ll provide unprecedented resources to the effort.
And we will keep our commitment until we have turned the tide against AIDS. ” (Remarks by the President on the Signing of H. R. 1298, the U. S. Leadership against AIDS) In response, to the Presidents message for relief, critiques’ still ask why so much money is being dispersed to help Africa?
Combined with the numbers of those infected with HIV and the large amounts of money being sent to for aid, the problems in Africa seem overwhelming. Turning a cheek to the gruesome reality of the epidemic is sometimes easier, than understanding why it is our responsibility to help Africa. Since we are not living the day-to-day life of that of the victims in Africa, Americans don’t have to care. However, for a better Africa, it is imperative to have proactive attitudes towards intervention and improvements. Despite the hopelessness and calamity that Aids has caused Africa, it is essential to support continued funding and relief efforts.
As Africa struggles during this epidemic, we must open our hearts with continued U. S. support and assistance. With an increase in relief aid for orphaned children, and others left behind, medicine can be distributed, and funding for education can be increased. All things considered, Africa will continue to lean on America to help break the cycle of the HIV epidemic. We must continue our efforts in order to make a positive impact for those affected by the disease, and for continued progression toward healing for Africa.